Pervez Musharraf (Urdu: پرویز مشرف; born 11 August 1943), is a Pakistani politician and a retired four-star rank army general who tenured as the tenth President of Pakistan from 2001 until tendering resignation to avoid impeachment in 2008.[2]
Prior to seizing the control of the government through a military coup d'état in 1999, Musharraf was serving as the Chairman joint chiefs as well as the Chief of army staff— the appointments he secured in 1998. Although, he was relinquished as Chairman joint chiefs in 2001, Musharraf eventually retired from the military service after retiring from the army in 2007. Commissioned from thePakistan Army in 1964, his military career played an active role in the settlement in the violent civil war in Afghanistan.[3] Musharraf rose to national prominence when he was elevated to the four-star appointments by then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on October 1998. As appointed, he was a mastermind of a Kargil infiltration that nearly brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war in 1999.[4]After months of contentious relations with Prime Minister Sharif, a staged military coup d'état allowed Musharraf to seize the control of the government when he subsequently placed Prime Minister Sharif under a strict house-arrest before moving towards a trial against Sharif in Adiala Prison.
Advocating for the Third Way for varying synthesis of conservatism and left wing ideas, he appointed Shaukat Aziz in place of Sharif and directed polices against terrorism, becoming a key player in the American-led war on terror.[4] As Shaukat Aziz departed asPrime Minister, and after approving the suspension of the Judicature branch in 2007, Musharraf dramatically weakened from his position in 2008.[4] Tendering his resignation in a threat to face potential impeachment movement led by the ruling Pakistan Peoples Party in 2008, Musharraf departed to London in self-imposed exile in London after returning to Pakistan to participate in the general elections held in 2013. While absent from Pakistan, Musharraf engaged in legal battles after the country's high courts issuedwarrants for him and Aziz for their alleged involvement in the assassinations of Benazir Bhutto and Akbar Bugti. Upon his return, Musharraf was disqualified from taking part in the elections by High Court judges in April 2013.[5]
On 31 March 2014, Musharraf was booked and charged with high treason for implementing emergency rule and suspending the constitution in 2007.[6] His legacy is mixed: his era saw the emergence of a more assertive middle class, but his disregard for civilian institutions weakened the state of Pakistan, according to BBC analysis in 2008
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